FIFA brings World Cup Qatar 2022 to Upland metaverse

Upland announced a multiyear collaboration with FIFA on November 11 to establish a World Cup village in the Upland metaverse to celebrate the 2022 World Cup.

Unlike previous Upland city openings, the lands in the Qatar metaverse village will not be available to the general public. Instead, they will be awarded to players for different activities and challenges throughout the tournament.

With over 3 million registered users, Qatar will have a replica of the Lusail Stadium, a FIFA World Cup-branded village, shops and showrooms for fans to visit virtually. Fans can also display their country’s flags in Upland’s 22 real-world-mapped cities.

Upland also unveiled a football fan collection game for the 2022 World Cup, with a limited number of mystery packages at various rarities available. They include country-specific team crests, shirts, footwear, legendary Official World Cup logos, mascots and posters, allowing football fans to create digital collection albums for each of the thirty-two represented country teams.

The company expects to take advantage of the increasing interest in soccer-themed digital collectibles by minting a series of Qatar 2022 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for Upland players to collect.

Exactly like real World Cup

In Qatar, football fans will learn how to participate and contribute to the virtual community-driven environment through the experience. Upland will host a variety of educational activities, and fans will have numerous opportunities to support their favorite teams, just as they would during a real World Cup.

Upland players and football fans worldwide can gather, trade and own FIFA digital content and video highlights. Its purpose is to provide a place for people to start exploring Web3.

Upland was designed as a property trading metaverse experience with a digital economy. Players can buy and sell property in US dollars or the Metaverse’s native currency, UPX. Traveling around the virtual world is also designed to mimic real life, but much faster and cheaper.

“No other world competition unites countries and people worldwide quite like the FIFA World Cup™,” Upland co-founder and co-CEO Dirk Lueth said.

“We’re excited to create a multi-touch web3 experience showcasing fun, innovation, entrepreneurialism, and community as the first of many opportunities in the future of FIFA World Cups™, where fans can now collect, own, and share a real moment in history.”

The FIFA World Cup journey concludes on December 18, when the real-world World Cup ends. Upland will honor the winner of the World Cup with a capital city, and the legacy of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will live on in the virtual world.

Upland is not the only metaverse project celebrating the World Cup. The first project is AI League: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Edition, a four-on-four casual football game with AI-controlled characters.

The next project is Matchday Challenge: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Edition. This metaverse offers a highly interactive casual social forecasting game based on football cards.

And the last one is Phygtl, described by FIFA as a “fan engagement mobile application” that allows players to own a “digital representation of eternal fandom.”

Players can download Upland for free on Android, iOS or the Upland website.